- Elon Musk gave hundreds of thousands of federal employees roughly two days to justify their work by detailing “what they got done last week” or risk losing their jobs. The directive was first announced on X before employees received a three-line email.
- Numerous agencies, including the U.S. State Department, National Weather Service and federal court system, have already told their employees not to respond to the email.
- Musk’s directive is just the latest in a series of DOGE moves that have thrown federal institutions into chaos.
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Tech billionaire and prominent Trump administration figure Elon Musk gave hundreds of thousands of federal employees roughly two days to justify their work by detailing “what they got done last week,” or risk losing their jobs. However, numerous agencies have already told employees they either should not or do not need to respond.
On Saturday afternoon, Feb. 22, Musk posted to X, “Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” adding, “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
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Following Musk’s post, a three-line email reportedly landed in federal employees’ inbox that read, “Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.” A deadline of 11:59 p.m. EST on Monday, Feb. 24, was attached to the email.
“Do not respond”
Despite the urgency of Musk’s message and the subsequent email, various agencies told their employees that they either should not or do not need to respond.
In an email obtained by The Associated Press, acting undersecretary for management at the State Department, Tibor Nagy, said, “The State Department will respond on behalf of the Department. No employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their Department chain of command.”
Meanwhile, officials with the U.S. federal court system told employees via email Saturday night, “We understand that some judges and judiciary staff have received an email … directing the recipient to reply with 5 accomplishments from the prior week. Please be advised that this email did not originate from the Judiciary or the Administrative Office and we suggest that no action be taken.”
Similarly, The National Weather Service told its employees in an email not to respond “until such time as we can verify that the message … is authentic.”
DOGE and Musk’s latest move
Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been disrupting federal agencies, and the billionaire is not shy about it. He wielded a chainsaw on stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference Friday, Feb. 21, calling it the “chainsaw for bureaucracy.”
Since Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, federal funding has been frozen, millions of employees were offered a buyout option, and more than 200,000 have seen their roles eliminated, all while agencies across the federal workforce have been told to prepare for mass layoffs. Most of those moves were swiftly challenged in court.
Union response
Nevertheless, the pace and breadth of DOGE’s actions have caused chaos for federal institutions and career civil servants.
“It is cruel and disrespectful to hundreds of thousands of veterans who are wearing their second uniform in the civil service to be forced to justify their job duties to this out-of-touch, privileged, unelected billionaire who has never performed one single hour of honest public service in his life,” American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) President Everett Kelley said of Musk’s latest directive. “AFGE will challenge any unlawful terminations of our members and federal employees across the country.”
Hours before Musk’s post went out on Saturday, Trump took to his own social media site, Truth Social, where he wrote in all caps, “Elon is doing a great job, but I would like to see him get more aggressive. Remember, we have a country to save, but ultimately, to make greater than ever before. MAGA!”
On Sunday morning, Musk followed up his post with a poll, asking his 218.7 million followers if all federal employees should “be required to send a short email with some basic bullet points about what they accomplished last week.” With three hours left in the poll, 320,000 people had voted.
